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The PR Report
Strategies & Actions
Jan. 2006
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The Ticket to IT Press
The IT press still clamors for case studies – and
even
new ventures can create a large footprint with the
right customer profile. InformationWeek, one
of the most senior reads for IT executives, focuses
much of its editorial on the realistic deployment of
new and established technologies, creating a wide-
open field for the ‘right’ story.
We found one in United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:
UTX), which is taking an innovative approach to
managing its suppliers – and getting out ahead of any
risk they might impose. It’s a new theme, and a new
market; our reporter was willing to invest in sketching
out a story of innovation and vision.
The result: Several calls from F1000 companies within
just a few weeks for our client, Open Ratings.
"United Technologies
Keeps Risks To A Minimum"
Open Ratings addresses a critical problem for any
company dependant on its suppliers: How to tell
who’s at risk for delays or financial upheaval, before
the damage occurs?
UTC, the $37 billion manufacturer, is considered a
standard-setter for supply chain excellence. For the
past few years, it’s been breaking new ground in
managing supplier relationships. This includes working
very closely with key suppliers to ensure their
success, with the help of Open Ratings’ SBManager
software and analysis.
UTC has strong relationships with the business press,
which is only beginning to catch on to risk
management – as it relates to the supply chain. We
targeted InformationWeek as the best outlet
for
reaching likely decision-makers, with the authority to
shape new IT and supply chain strategies. Of all the
IT publications, InformationWeek gives some
of the
best media ‘real estate’ to a strong customer case
study.
The results exceeded our expectations: More than
1,000 words, and several photos packaged a strong
set of extremely positive messages. The piece is now
a highly effective sales tool, and is defining the best
practices for managing supplier risk.
A Story is Born
Working with a company the size of UTC presents its
own complexities, like walking a fine line between
demonstrating results without setting expectations
with Wall Street. Plus, sharing technology innovation
can expose too much to competitors. In the end,
UTC’s initiatives included positioning the giant as a
supply chain best-practice leader.
The reporter spoke with several sources, by phone
and email; email interviews allowed us to control the
message even more tightly. Scheduling challenges
lengthened the process; the story took three months
from first pitch to final publication.
The Open Ratings team agreed it was worth it. It’s an
anchor piece, with a lifespan of at least 12 months.
And the leads it generated are already in the
pipeline.
Key strategies that turn a story into winning
coverage include:
Make it a winning proposition for the
customer: Whether it’s career advancement for
your contact or the company’s need to be seen as an
innovator, sell them on participating based on their
needs.
Neutralize the negative: Anticipate the hard
questions, openly discuss the skeletons and practice
responding to the worst questions the reporter might
ask.
Feed the beast: Scheduling and conducting
the interview are just the beginning. Stay in touch
with the reporter with market insight, data and
additional resources to keep steering the story in
your favor.
Play the field: These windows of opportunity
can close quickly – work the story with multiple
publications that don’t compete to make the most of
it.
Good manners matter: It’s amazing how
many companies forget to thank the customer.
2006 PR Trends
Talking with technology companies and PR firms
across the country unveils some emerging trends:
- Marketing
- Blogging
- Budgets
- PR Growth
- Analysts
Integrating PR and Marketing
Marketing teams are integrating programs even more,
drawing tighter connections between PR and other
lead-generating activities, especially as mandates to
drive more leads increase.
- Webinars continue to gain ground, typically
at the expense of advertising; customer events and
partner marketing are also steady and growing
priorities.
- The number of trade shows is increasing;
even relatively small companies are investing in an
average of 3-6 shows per year, a significant increase
from two years ago.
Blogging
The overwhelming majority of companies are sitting
on the sidelines, though a growing number are toying
with jumping into the fray.
- The biggest concern: Finding someone
inside the company who has the bandwidth to
dedicate sufficient resources to it.
- Some companies are hiring ‘independent’
outsiders to blog on their behalf. This new cadre of
opinionated influencers may be the next wave of
freelancers.
- We’re also seeing analyst firms link to some
of these independents.
Budgets
Budgets are up, but spending is still cautious, and
partner programs are gaining a greater share of
marketing dollars overall.
- Companies that failed to meet revenue
numbers in 2005 are preserving marketing budgets,
for the most part. At the same time, layoffs remain
real, and the sporadic cutbacks and layoffs that we
saw in ‘05 are likely to continue.
- How much to spend on marketing is a
current question – driving queries on industry bulletin
boards, and shaping boardroom discussions.
- Industry stats range from as little as 2-7
percent for established players in the B2B space, to
as much as 30 percent for younger companies with
full-blown programs, according to Pam Campagna, of
BlueSage Marketing. The breakout within marketing
depends greatly on a company’s priorities; we’ve
seen PR drive 25 to 50 percent of a company’s
marketing spend, though it’s clearly much less for
companies with heavy show schedules.
- Companies with $8-10 million in revenue
may have a target marketing budget of $750,000 – a
top-down number driven by the typical portfolio:
Search engine optimization, shows, Webinars,
customer events and PR. A second-level review
takes a bottoms-up analysis, and correlates the leads
required to the returns of each campaign. This two-
pronged approach can quickly identify budget or
performance gaps, and highlight where spending cuts
should occur.
PR Uptick
Many companies are investing in PR for the first time,
some with as little as $250,000 in revenue. This is a
clear shift from ‘05, when companies talked about the
need for marketing, but often handled most work
internally. For larger companies, the catalysts include
recent acquisitions, major partner deals and
significant product roll outs, some of which are
vehicles for repositioning campaigns.
- Marketing teams are more willing to dismiss
their PR firms for under performing. With everyone
expected to deliver quantitative results, it may mean
marketing is insisting on greater accountability from
their agencies, and ready to switch if they’re not
seeing it.
- Entire emerging tech sectors that were just
getting off the ground in 2005 are ramping up their PR
push in 2006. The best evidence: When multiple
competitors in a fairly tight field all conduct their first
agency searches at the same time.
Analysts
As the analyst firms shed staff, more tech companies
are banking on cottage industry analyst shops, along
with the ‘safety play’ of the bigger firms.
- The biggest change from ‘05: Rather than
investing in only one firm, companies are increasingly
finding budget for two firms, including a smaller shop.
- As a result, the smaller firms are gradually
gaining more authority.
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In Our Corner
"CNN, Forbes, and the New York Times
- 4-star coverage that made our launch an
outstanding success, and subsequently helped us
raise our next round of funding. This success was the
clear result of strategic planning, hard work and the
fact that this team knows its business."
—Brad Adamske, CEO and co-founder, NowDocs
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CEOs Communicating More
Compared with two years ago, CEOs are spending
significantly more time talking with customers,
employees and partners. That’s one of the top
findings of the 5th annual survey conducted by
PRWeek and Burson-Marsteller, looking at 131
CEOs in leading companies ranging from less than $10
million to $1 billion in revenue.
The survey reveals that CEOs are dedicating more
time to ensuring consistent communication at multiple
levels of management, resulting in more people
championing a consistent vision. And with good
reason: Employees note that they put significant
weight on their immediate managers’ perception on
the direction of the company.
Other key findings:
The CEOs reported that mainstream media is still
highly valued for its impact, and listed The Wall
Street Journal, followed by The New York
Times, Fortune, Fox News and CNN as
having the potential for the greatest impact.
And while blogs seem to be on everyone’s ‘watch’ list,
just 7 percent of the CEOs surveyed have their own
blogs, and only 8 percent of the companies reported
having blogs in place. About 50 percent indicated
that they don’t expect this to change in the next two
years. The biggest deterrents are making time to
keep it current, and, especially for public companies,
to ensure consistency and accuracy in even minor
postings.
Four New Clients
Kicking off the New Year, four new clients have
signed on with us, in industries ranging from emerging
security, supply chain and federal contracting
markets.
The wins deepen Corporate Ink’s impressive roster of
established and start-up companies innovating new
technologies, services and business processes.
The companies collectively solve complex business
issues affecting their customers’ bottom-line value
and operational effectiveness, such as identity theft,
asset management, and supply chain strategies.
- Guardium
secures sensitive information in databases and
automates compliance for global enterprises.
- PanGo
Networks
monitors and tracks the location of critical assets in
real time to improve business processes.
- Procuri
delivers sophisticated spend analysis, global sourcing,
supplier management and contract solutions to
hundreds of customers.
- SoBran delivers biomedical, logistics
and engineering expertise to the federal
government.
For more information, click here.
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Clients 
